Friday 11th May – Sunday 13th May 2018
In May, six of our volunteer crew-members (Grenville, Paul, Marie, Rosie, Matt and Ian) looked to walk the Solent Way to raise funds for medical training and equipment and Myeloma UK. Hamble Lifeboat will provide medic training for at least two of our crew with the funds raised. Thank you to all who supported this fundraising campaign. The team have been informed by Just Giving they were in the top 3% of fundraising campaigns active at that point.
Grenville Houser
“We should do it in full kit!” There were some really mad ideas floating around the Boathouse in the weeks preceding. “Are you training?” my osteopath asked innocently one day. “Well…yes. The Gym.” “That’s not training. You need to be walking 10 miles a day!” WHAM! That’s when it hit home that actually none of us were in much of a condition to knock off 20+ miles a day for 3 days!
I for one was nervous on that first morning in Milford-on-Sea, but we were off, and before you knew it, it was over.
There were a number of lasting memories:
- The ladies at Goodall’s Strawberry Farm
- The welcome at the Royal Southampton YC
- Gins Farm
- Crawling through Hamble – everyone wanted to buy us drinks!
- Disturbing the Naturists – twice – Sorry chaps!
- All the various SAR stations we visited – whose crews made us so welcome – RNLI Calshot and Portsmouth, NCI teams at Lee-on-Solent and Calshot, Portsea Rescue, Gosport & Fareham Inshore Rescue
Most of all, for me was the number of people who came up to us who had first-hand experience of dealing with Myeloma, especially the lady gardener who introduced me to her Husband, who has Myeloma.
Of course there were blisters, sore knees, aching joints and tired sweaty feet – but all of this falls away to nothing when I remember all the wonderful people who stopped to talk, who wanted to help, who gave us tea and cake.
Please don’t tell anyone else in the crew but I would do it all again tomorrow.